Written by Leah Gerber
Most media coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics has focused on the number of medals Canada has won, the proceedings, the pomp, and national pride generated by the event.
But on Feb. 12, while most Canadians tuned in to the opening ceremonies, thousands of protesters, shouting chants of, “Homes not games” and “No Olympics on stolen native land,” clogged the streets outside the Art Gallery in Vancouver. Their chants were a constant clash with the event’s opening proceedings.
According to www.no2010.com, the official anti-Olympic native website, no treaties have ever been signed concerning the ownership of any of the land in British Columbia, including the land used for the Olympics. Since 2002, many other groups and thousands of people have joined in, each with their own issues against the Olympic Games.
There are many reasons people have protested the Olympics, the main two being the claims of stolen native land, as well as the large increases in homelessness and the mistreatment of the homeless brought on by the Olympics. Other problems include environmental destruction, lack of accountability, violations of civil liberties, high costs, etc. The list goes on.
“Priorities get skewed, huge diversions of public funds occur, and debt overhang provides an ongoing excuse to say the cupboard is bare and to call for public funding cuts,” said Joseph Jones, protestor, key media contact, and event coordinator with the Olympic Resistance Network, adding to the list. “A recent respectable estimate of overall Olympic spending sets the figure at $8 billion. Compare this with the revised 2009 deficit forecast for British Columbia at $2.8 billion, up well over five times from what was stated in spring 2009 before the BC provincial election.”
On the ground, in the camps, and the streets of downtown Vancouver where the protestors demonstrate, the atmosphere is “mixed” said Dr. Chris Shaw, Olympic resister, media contact, and ORN economics specialist.
“There are lots of drunks enjoying a giant street party; the rest of us feeling sickened by the spectacle.”
Though some of the protests have gotten quite rowdy, with some protestors smashing the windows of local businesses, for the most part, the protests have been peaceful.
“The range and strength and duration of protest has been underreported, with far too much emphasis on ‘riot porn,’” said Jones. “For example, the torch relay suffered two major blockades on the morning of Feb. 12.
“The tent village established on Feb. 15 on VANOC-leased land has lots of life and is already looking well beyond the initially projected five days. A very recent Angus-Reid survey still shows strong support of 55 per cent for protester concern about spending on the Games.”
Obviously, many people are outraged and demanding better from their government, but why should the rest of Canadians care?
“Because political and corporate elites have spent huge amounts of public money to support an unaccountable international organization with multiple historic links to fascist ideologies,” said Jones. “The opening ceremonies…ironically coincided with an announcement of $10 million in provincial cuts to services for vulnerable children and families, and also with multiple civilian deaths in Afghanistan military operations.”
“The basic lack of morality of hosting a party when three thousand people live on the streets,” makes Shaw’s choice for protesting an obvious one. The massive number of people who arrived to protest in Vancouver, and the support offered from across Canada shows that many more Canadians agree with him.
So is it too late to make things good again? Are there any solutions?
“The IOC and Olympics can’t be reformed. Eagle Ridge won’t ever come back,” said Shaw. “The best we could do would be to devote the same energy and money to social problems as ‘we’ devoted to a 17-day party.”
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